The Zheleznodorozhny Military Court in Rostov-on-Don has recognized Nazi Helmut Oberlander as guilty of genocide against 3,000 Soviet citizens in 1942, TASS reported. Oberlander, a native of the Ukrainian SSR, was an ethnic German who did not hold German citizenship.
In the autumn of 1941, Oberlander joined Sonderkommando 10a in occupied Molchanka in the Ukrainian SSR, a unit that carried out punitive actions and executed Soviet citizens. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office stated on Telegram that Oberlander and other Nazis killed at least 3,200 people across Krasnodar Krai and Rostov Oblast, RT reported.
Wartime Crimes and Emigration to Canada
Oberlander also served as an interpreter in 1942 under Nazi criminal Kurt Christmann, participating in four mass punitive operations that killed at least 3,290 people. Immediately after Germany surrendered, Oberlander fled Europe and later emigrated to Canada in 1954, where he lived until his death in 2021.
Russia's Prosecutor General's Office said Oberlander's death does not rehabilitate him. The office added that under the UN Convention, statutes of limitations do not apply to genocide and war crimes.
